In general broadcasting business, grouping is mainly carried out such that a broadcasting station existing at a large city is caused to be central station so-called key station and broadcasting stations existing in local areas are caused to be affiliated stations of the key station. The key station produces televising master which is common televising contents to send out it to respective affiliated stations. The respective affiliated stations receive the televising master to transmit it as televising contents to jurisdiction areas to thereby carry out televising (on air), or to organize a portion of the received televising master by using materials possessed in respective affiliated stations to change it into peculiar televising contents thereafter to carry out televising. In a manner as stated above, the so-called television program is delivered to the viewer side.
Respective broadcasting stations produce various programs or CM films irrespective of the key station and the affiliated station, and its process step begins from collection of materials by field collection using collection equipment, etc. Material is set of fragments of unedited image/sound, and is source material. Then, edit processing is implemented to the collected material by using editing mechanical equipment to cause it to be material (source). As the material, there are program source and CM source. In respective sources, there are HD (High Definition) form and SD (standard) form.
Respective broadcasting stations carry out organization (scheduling) of plural materials produced in this way so that they have predetermined order and time series. Such organized results are televised from respective stations as televising contents and television programs are thus formed or materialized. Accordingly, one television program is set in time divisional manner in which order of plural program sources and CM sources is caused to undergo time management.
Hitherto, collection of data, material collection, editing with respect to material and organization are carried out every broadcasting stations irrespective of the key station or the affiliated station. Materials are caused to undergo storage/management at banks prepared in respective broadcasting stations irrespective of the key station or the affiliated station, and are taken out from the banks in accordance with scheduling so that they are televised. Further, portions of televised respective sources are archived and are preserved for a long time.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of equipment of a conventional broadcasting system. Moreover, FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an example of affiliated station in the conventional broadcasting system.
The conventional broadcasting system 100 comprises a key station 110, plural affiliated stations, e.g., affiliated station 120 shown, and a dedicated digital line 101 or a dedicated analog line 102 for connecting these stations. The key station 110 comprises an organization system 111 for organizing plural materials (program materials 115 and CM materials 116, etc. in the figure) so that they are caused to be one main contents 113, a marking unit 112 for driving or placing trigger signal 114 indicating timing between end of respective materials constituting the main contents 113 and start of the next material, and a sending equipment including an encoder 117, etc. for sending out the main contents 113 with trigger signal 114 to respective affiliated stations on the real time basis via the dedicated digital line 101 or the dedicated analog line 102. In addition, organization staffs, a marking manager and sending staffs are arranged.
Each affiliated station, e.g., affiliated station 120 comprises a production system 231 for editing collected materials to produce program materials (program sources) or CM materials (CM sources) peculiar to the own station, a program bank 126 for storing or archiving produced program materials, a CM bank 127 for storing or archiving produced CM materials, a data server 123 for storing or archiving organization information (scheduling information) peculiar to the own station obtained from an input system 124 for business information or organization information, a receiving equipment including a decoder 121, etc. for receiving main contents 113 sent from the key station 110, and an automatic sending control unit 122 for detecting the trigger signal 114 from flow of the received main contents 113 and for transmitting indication signal 122a which serves to suitably carry out replacement between program material 115 or CM material 116 in the main contents 113 and program material or CM material peculiar to the own station stored in the program bank 126 or the CM bank 127 on the basis of organization information 123a which has been taken out from the data server 123 to cause replaced one to be televising contents peculiar to the own station (source train which can be televised). Moreover, the automatic sending control unit 122 controls the operation of an automatic sending system 129.
The production system 231 has a function to not only produce program sources or CM sources peculiar to the own station as described above, but also receive program sources or CM sources which have been purchased from the external, e.g., other station, etc. as external input 131 to adjust the received sources. These materials are stored into the program bank 126 or the CM bank 127 after undergone adjustment, or are directly delivered to a distribution/routing unit 125 which will be described later as real time material.
The distribution/routing unit 125 carries out replacement between program material 115 and CM material 116 in the main contents 113 and real time material on the basis of indication signal 122a transmitted from the automatic sending control unit 122. Moreover, the distribution/routing unit 125 carries out replacement between program material 115 and CM material 116 in the main contents 113 and program material and CM material peculiar to the own station which have been taken out from the program bank 116 and the CM bank 127 to thereby cause the replaced one to be televising contents 128 peculiar to the own station.
The affiliated station 120 comprises such distribution/routing unit 125, the automatic sending system 129 operative under management by control of the automatic sending control unit 122 to send out televising contents 128, and a transmitting system 130 adapted to receive the televising contents sent from the automatic sending system 129 to carry out broadcast thereof from antenna. In addition, production staffs, bank managers, sending staffs and transmitting staffs are arranged.
Here, as shown in FIG. 2, at least two systems of the data server 123 for current use and a data server 223 for reserve are prepared as data server, at least two systems of the program bank 126 for current use and a program bank 226 for reserve are similarly provided as the program bank, and at least two systems of the CM bank 127 for current use and a CM bank 227 for reserve are provided as the CM bank. It is to be noted that, in this example, the case where “current” banks are ordinarily used is intentionally used.
Further, as the automatic sending control unit, at least two systems of the automatic sending unit 122 for current use and an automatic sending unit 222 for reserve are provided. Similarly, as the automatic send system, at least two systems of the automatic sending system 129 for current use and an automatic sending system 229 for reserve are provided. As the transmitting system, at least two systems of the transmitting system 130 for current use and a transmitting system 230 for reserve are provided.
Furthermore, a manual system 241 used at the time of emergency and a switching unit 242 for carrying out switching between the current unit and the preliminary unit are provided.
Accordingly, in the entirety of the conventional broadcasting system 100 composed of the key station 110 and plural affiliated stations 120 (e.g., N stations), there are installed (provided) data servers, program banks, CM banks, automatic sending control units, automatic sending systems and transmitting systems by at least 2N systems in such a manner that current systems and preliminary systems are included.
As the working content processed in each affiliated station, there are    1. Collecting step for collecting materials by field collection    2. Production step for editing original materials to cause the edited materials to be materials.    3. Storage/keeping step for storing/keeping material into bank    4. Organization step for carrying out scheduling of material    5. On air step for taking out material from bank under management of real time in accordance with schedule to televise it as televising contents    6. Archive step for archiving material
As shown in FIG. 1, it is generally carried out to replace a portion of televising master in which main contents 113 prepared by the key station 110 and sent to the affiliated station 120, i.e., plural program materials (115, etc.) and CM materials (116, etc.) are sent out in order in time series manner in accordance with designated order by program material and/or CM material for replacement prepared at the affiliated station 120 to thereby organize televising contents 128 peculiar to corresponding affiliated station to carry out televising.
As stated above, in accordance with the conventional broadcasting system, in the case of carrying out switching between main contents 113 received at the time of televising at the affiliated station 120 and contents for replacement as occasion demands, the key station 110 stamps, e.g., net queue as trigger signal 114 on the main contents 113 to send out it. This trigger signal 114 serves to notify, to the affiliated station 120, timing in which, e.g., program material 115 ends and shift to CM material 116 succeeding to this program material 115 is carried out, and is stamped in a manner of anticipation by predetermined time determined in advance, e.g., 3 seconds by taking into consideration time required for switching processing at the affiliated station 120.
Accordingly, the automatic sending control unit 122 of the affiliated station 120 is operative so that when this unit 122 detects trigger signal 114 from received main contents 113, it carries out switching after 3 seconds from the trigger signal 114.
However, in the case where the above-described anticipation time changes owing to inconvenience taking place at transmission process via communication line of main contents (televising master) 113, e.g., line delay taking place at analog line, or jitter and/or wonder (fluctuation in point of time of arrival interval of packet produced by change of signal phase) taking place at digital line, there takes place deviation at switching timing for material replacement at the affiliated station 120.
Timing deviation at the time of transfer of packet taking place in the case where packet is transferred via digital line is shown in FIG. 3. When train of packet cm of the next material is sent successively to train of packet pkt of a certain material at the time of sending from the key station 110, trigger signal strg is marked or carved at the position anticipated by an anticipation time τs determined in advance. This anticipation time τs is sum of required time 501 for trigger signal detection processing required at the affiliated station 120, required time 503 of switching processing for material replacement and margin 502 of margin insurance, and is set to, e.g. 3 seconds.
Accordingly, at the time of sending from the key station 110, trigger signal strg is marked at the position anticipated by packets pkt1 to pkt3 which are packets caused to flow between time τs from the time of starting portion of packet cm1 succeeding to terminating portion of packet pkt3 which is actual switching timing. This is based on the probability that packets pkt1 to pkt3 are caused to undergo transmission without lavishness and shortage via line between time τs.
However, because of fluctuation in point of time of packet arrival interval taking place by overload, etc. during transmission, arrival intervals of packets pkt1 to pkt3 change. For this reason, packets pkt1 to pkt3 are received as packets pkt1′ to pkt3′ at the time of reception of the affiliated station 120 and delay takes place in timing by jitter jt. For this reason, even if time is passed by a predetermined anticipation time τs from detection of the trigger signal strg, packet pkt3′ does not end.
On the other hand, at the affiliated station 120, since switching into flow of replacement materials cf1 to cf15 is automatically carried out after the predetermined time τs from detection of the trigger signal strg, switching is carried out in the state where packet pkt3′ does not remain to be ended, resulting in the inconvenience that cut Cut as shown takes place.
In addition, when switching into original televising master is carried out after replaced materials cf1 to cf15 (e.g., CM material of 15 seconds) end, original materials cm1 to cm 15 flowing in the televising master are such that remaining portion (residual) Rsd is televised in the state where packet cm 15 does not end by the above-described timing delay. Namely, there takes place inconvenience that a portion of original material which must not primarily appear remains, and is televised in the state where such a portion is not erased.
For example, there takes place inconvenience that a portion of remaining other commercial appears at the time of end of a certain commercial. Moreover, while explanation has been given in FIG. 3 by taking delay by time fluctuation as an example, such inconvenience similarly takes place also in the case where lead operation is carried out by time fluctuation in a manner opposite to the above. In the case where switching is carried out by sending of stream, there are instances where there may result further unnatural switching.
As a result, in the broadcasting system of the conventional type, there was the possibility that not only dignity of televising contents is injured, but also impression of sponsor who provides corresponding program is injured.
On the other hand, also in sending via analog line, deviation of timing similarly takes place. FIG. 4 is an explanatory view thereof. The key station 110 issues switching signal at 57 seconds 59 minutes 18 hours which is earlier by 3 seconds prior to 00 seconds 00 minutes 19 hours at which switching from program to key CM should be carried out to send out such switching signal to the affiliated station 120 serving as local station via analog line 102. However, in the case where arrival to the affiliated station 120 of switching signal is delayed by, e.g., 1 sec. by occurrence of line delay so that arrival time is 58 seconds 59 minutes 18 hours, the automatic sending control unit 122 executes automatic switching after predetermined three seconds from arrival of switching signal at the affiliated station 120. For this reason, actual switching is executed at 01 seconds 00 minutes 19 hours delayed by delay time in place of the 00 seconds 00 minutes 19 hours. As a result, timing deviation similar to that in the case of the above-mentioned sending via the digital line took place, resulting in the possibility that degradation of dignity of televising contents may take place. Namely, the first problem of the conventional broadcasting system resides in that dignity of televising contents is degraded by inconvenience taking place at the time of switching of material at respective affiliated stations.
In addition, in the conventional key station, there are required, as equipments and human resources,    1. collecting equipments and persons who are in charge of collection in the case where collection of materials is carried out also at the key station,    2. editing equipments and persons who are in charge of editing in the case where material editing is carried out also at the key station,    3. bank equipments (for current use and reserve) and management staffs.    4. schedulers (scheduling equipments) and persons who are in charge of scheduling,    5. automatic sending equipments to affiliated stations (for current use and reserve) and sending management staffs,    6. transmitting equipments (for current use and reserve) and transmitting management staffs in the case where broadcast is carried out also at the key station. Moreover, in the conventional key station, marking system for marking trigger signal (e.g., net queue) is especially indispensable, but its issuance system is complicated. Namely, the second problem of the conventional broadcasting system resides in that equipment cost and use cost of the sending system of the key station side are increased, and cost is increased because of requirement of the number of persons.
On the other hand, in the conventional respective affiliated stations, there are required, as equipments and human resources,    1. collecting equipments and persons who are in charge of collection,    2. editing equipments and persons who are in charge of editing,    3. bank equipments (for current use and reserve) and management staffs,    4. schedulers (scheduling equipments) and persons who are in charge of scheduling,    5. automatic sending equipments (for current use and reserve) and sending management staffs,    6. transmitting equipments (for current use and reserve) and transmitting staffs. There was the present situation where many equipments/machine parts and staffs in charge are all required. Especially, at the automatic sending equipment of the affiliated station, there was indispensable function to detect trigger signal from televising master received from the key station to switch material under real time control on the basis of this trigger signal to re-organize televising contents peculiar to the own station. The third problem of the conventional broadcasting system resides in that cost is increased as the result of the fact that equipments and staffs are required for trigger signal detection and televising contents re-organization at respective affiliated stations.
Further, the fourth problem of the conventional broadcasting system resides in that cost is increased as the result of the fact that respective affiliated stations require preliminary automatic sending equipments and related staffs. The preliminary equipments are worked at the time of emergency. Because plural affiliated stations are respectively provided with preliminary equipments, total number of preliminary equipments is increased. Moreover, because these preliminary equipments are not frequently worked, working efficiency is very low. For this reason, a measure for rationalization was required.
In addition, in accordance with the configuration according to the prior art, it was not easy from a technical point of view that a certain affiliated station (e.g., station A) confirms existence of material originally produced and archived at other affiliated station (e.g., station B), and carries out incorporation into televising contents for the own station (station A) by making use of that material. Namely, the fifth problem of the conventional broadcasting system resides in that there do not exist measures for efficiently executing transmission/reception of information/data and command between affiliated stations required in the case where material caused to undergo management at a certain affiliated station is utilized at other affiliated station.